Aug 25 2008
Amber from Chinesepod pointed out in one of her recent shows, 拉肚子 (diarrhea) isn’t as much a taboo subject as in the west. I recently heard this conversation in a restaurant toilet.
(I walk in. There is only one cubicle, and a guy is waiting.)
Guy 1:朋友，你快好了没有？(Friend, can you hurry up?)
Guy 2: 对不起，我拉肚子了，等一下！(I’m sorry, I have diarrhea, just a moment!)
Aug 12 2008
Last week I asked for some responses to questions in English and today I’d like to go over some of the answers.
Thanks very much to these people for participating in the first assignment! Specifically, thank you to theresa, nicholas cripps, hyunwoo sun, koungeun choi, yiwei, lucierili, RuaGreenwood, Cody, sorry if I forgot anyone.
Here are some answers I’d like to go over.
A1: I’m eating a fruit.
A2: Yes, I do.
A3: I eat a fruit after my dinner every day. Fruits keep us healthy and strong.
“Fruit” is an uncountable object, so we can’t say “a” fruit, or “fruits” but just “fruit”. “I’m eating fruit”. And “I eat fruit”.
Monkey:What are you doing, Mr.Pig?
Pig:I’m eating watermelon…
Monkey:Do you eat watermelon often?
Pig:Yes,I do.
Monkey:How many watermelon do you eat a day?
Pig:Three…one is for my breakfast,the second is for lunch and the last one should be for my dinner
A conversation between a pig and a monkey? Hahaha! I like it. But we should say “How many watermelons…” and not “How many watermelon…”. When we ask “how many” we always use the plural. It’s always hard to know when to use the plural in English…. Hyunwoo has got it completely correct:
Hyunwoo:
Q1: What are you doing?
A1: I’m listening to a podcast.
Q2: Do you listen to podcasts often?
A2: Yes, I do.
Q3: How often do you listen to podcasts?
A3: I listen to podcasts all the time.
Notice that he says that “I’m listening to a podcast”. This is the only time one should use the singular in these three sentence patterns. Off the record, this is the part my girlfriend is having the most trouble with.
Next is lucierili’s answer. She also has no mistakes, but uses a few constructions that beginners sometimes get wrong, so I thought I’d mention them.
Q1: What are you doing?
A1: I’m packing my luggage.
Q2: Do you study often?
A2: Yes, I do. I like studying languages.
Q3: How often do you go to the restaurant?
A3: I go once a month.
Remember what I mentioned about uncountable objects? “Luggage” is one of those so we don’t say “a luggage” or “luggages” but just “luggage”.
Also, she uses a plural in “I like studying languages”. Notice that we have the plural “languages” and not “language”.
If you want to see some more answers, look here:
http://www.maxiewawa.com/2008/08/04/simple-present-present-continuous-frequency/#comments
http://talkwiththeworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/simple-present-present-continuous.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4NdkQzk55k
Jul 06 2008
On my final day before leaving Tokyo the week before last, I stood in the corner of the office and took these ph
otos of everyone that was in the office that day. Some of the people you can see are featured on-air, and if you listen to as many language learning podcasts as I do, you’d recognise most of them.
I won’t list everyone by name, since that would ruin the surprise if you actually get to meet anyone yourself. It’s much more fun when you meet them in real life.
It’s so strange hearing those voices “in the flesh”. I remember an Actor’s Workshop interview with the cast of the Simpsons; it was pretty crappy, basically the guy interviewing them just got everyone to do the voices, but I sat there enthralled. Hearing those voices which are attached so strongly to characters that I’m so familiar with come out of real peoples’ mouths was really strange. Meeting famous voices from Innovative Languages was a similar feeling.
By coincidence today I met another famous podcaster, Jenny Zhu from ChinesePod.com . I was quite flattered that she recognised me, and remembered my online name (maxiewawa) immediately! I was waiting in line at a foreign supermarket on 淮海路 and spotted Hank, also from Praxis Languages. I recognised him from a Youtube video. He smiled after I introduced myself, and after I made it clear that I was a listener, without saying anything, he pointed to Jenny. We had a nervous conversation (well I was nervous, she wasn’t) where I uncomfortably admitted that I worked for a ライバル会社 and kept saying 哇，两个名人，太紧张 but it was great to have a brush with celebrity.
Jun 13 2008
I told almost the exact same story on another blog years ago when I first started learning Japanese. If you read that story, this one is almost the same, but it’s 100% true!
The first thing that hits you when you walk down Shanghai’s picturesque Nanjing East Rd (南京东路) is the people trying to sell you stuff. “Watch? Bag? Dvd?” They are really annoying. Even if you say “no” they just keep pushing their business cards at you.
Since I started learning Korean, I was sure that I’d be able to confuse them. If I obviously didn’t understand what they were talking about, they’d ignore me, right?
I replied the first person who started hassling me the other day thus:
“아니,아니. 이미 있어.” (No, no, no. I already have one.)
Without missing a beat, the guy continued pushing his business card on me.
“시게? 가방? 여기와!” (Watch? Bag? Come here!)
The bugger spoke Korean too!
You have to give these annoying salesman credit when they are due. When I tried to be a Japanese tourist, they let me know in stilted Japanese that their fake bags and watches were the best in all Shanghai. When I spoke in Korean, they replied in Korean! There’s no getting rid of those crafty bastards.
Jun 09 2008
I would have written this mini-review earlier, but a touch of RSI in the my left hand stopped me from typing properly. I might have written something but such vital letters as “w” “e” and everyone’s favourite “t” would have been absent, so I thought it better to leave it until later.
To celebrate Aika’s first paycheck from her new job, we decided to go out. We left after dinner at home, and wandered down the road to the House of Blues and Jazz on Fuzhou rd.
There was a band tamely playing jazz standards, and they were pleasant enough. Aika and I were looking forward to sitting upstairs sipping drinks and listening to the band, and to that end we went downstairs to get our drinks. After a few failed attempts, we managed to accost a waiter by the scruff of the neck and extract a drinks menu from him. He tried to get us to sit on a few stools squashed amongst other patrons, and I told him politely that we’d already found a nice spot upstairs. “Not open,” he said. “You can’t sit there.”
After a half-hearted look through the drinks menu and a look around to see if we could find any better seats (we couldn’t) we decided to leave.
If we had stayed we would have been squashed onto two stools next amongst strangers, straining our necks to see a band playing tame music, which had its heyday when Duke Ellington was alive. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the Duke, but when one is sipping a beer on a Friday night, “Satin Doll” just isn’t a suitable soundtrack.
And a good thing we left. In retrospect the 10 minutes that we spent in The House Of Blues And Jazz on FuZhou Rd was quite substandard. The band was fine, but we had to accost a waiter, were told that we weren’t allowed in the nicest part of the bar, and were pointed towards two stools squashed in amongst strangers.
We made our way to City Diner, on the corner of TongRen and Nanjing West rd (if you want to go, show this address to your driver: 同仁路，南京西路 and tell ‘em maxiewawa sent you). The first thing that hit us was the music. They were small, as they always are at City Diner, (sax, drums, vocals, rhodes) but awesome. They played funky jazz and blues and really kicked along.
But now that I think of it, the service at City Diner was horrible. Trying to find a waiter, at one point I wandered into the bar area (something that will get you thrown out of a bar from where I’m from!) and actually ended up serving some bewildered patrons who, like me, were having trouble finding a waiter.
It’s strange that I didn’t remember that immediately… after my whinging about bad service at the House of Blues and Jazz I forgot how bad it was at City Diner. I guess it goes to show how good music can make up for bad service.
Anyway, we found seats to our liking at City Diner, helped ourselves to drinks (like I said, the waitstaff weren’t really on the ball that night) and sat, toetapping along to the band.
Eventually I worked up the courage to say hello to a group of Koreans, but only after a few drinks. Whenever I hear a language that I’m learning spoken a public place, I just have to say hello! Everyone was very complimentary after they realised that I was speaking Korean (ha!) and we all made friends. Aika was of course popular, being a foreigner who speaks Korean very well, and soon everyone stopped complimenting me, since it was quite obvious that I don’t speak all that well actually. We had a great time, dancing, singing and drinking.
The moral of this story is simple: stay away from the House of Blues and Jazz on a Thursday, Friday and Saturday night; there is a much better alternative at the City Diner, where Five Point Punch (or is it Three Point Kick? Sorry I forgot the name!) play. You might have to pour your own drinks though.
The House of Blues and Jazz is located on FuZhou rd ［福州路］, near the bund. You can recognise it by the laidback music, and a second floor that has no one there. The City Diner is located on TongRen rd, near NanJing West rd. ［同仁路近南京西路］You’ll recognise it by the uplifting music and the throngs of people gettin’ down and boogie-ing inside.
May 21 2008
Today I got another unsolicited SMS. This is for a more noble cause though.
I can only guess that this has been sent to everyone on the network (has it???) Some kind soul had the bright idea that not everyone will know of the what is being done about bodies, and may be concerned about the remains of someone they know being buried or disposed of without hope of them ever being identified. This message makes clear to anyone that reads it what is being done about the problem. We don’t often hear about the good things the Chinese Central Government does, so I just thought I’d let everyone know about this little message, and commend whoever had the idea to do it.
May 13 2008
By now you might have heard the news that an earthquake has hit Central China. The first I heard of it was this thread at Shanghaiexpat.com .
I don’t have any dramatic stories; I was playing table tennis on my balcony with Dad when it hit, and didn’t feel a thing! I just got a call from a distressed Aika, asking if everything was ok. I had to tell her that we didn’t feel anything, and if I hadn’t stumbled on the thread at ShanghaiExpat.com, I wouldn’t have known what she was talking about.
I can’t imagine why we didn’t feel anything. The guys from the previous post aren’t anywhere to be seen though. *gulp*
May 12 2008
As I type, there are three workers climbing around on a scaffolding that is on top of a tall office building near my apartment. I hope that they have taken safety precautions!
Seeing these guys reminds me of the time my landlord had to climb around on the exterior of my apartment. One summer, something went wrong with the air conditioner. As happens when something is broken, I called my landlord. It didn’t take him long to come around and see what was wrong: he said that a pipe was broken, and would just need to be replaced. He seemed a little bit relieved, he’d be able to do it himself without buying any extra spare parts or spending any money. He said that the same thing had happened to him once, and that he had some spare hose at his apartment. He lives in the same complex, so he dashed home to get it. He returned not more than ten minutes later carrying a short length of tubing.
I was a little puzzled as what he intended to do with the tube. It was only 30cm or so, and quite thin. He had said that all he would have to do was swap this new tube for the old one. But I couldn’t see a similar tube anywhere. The air conditioner was just a big metal box that sits in a corner of the living room. No thin white tubes anywhere. But he seemed to know what he was doing. As I started to move furniture around so that he could get at the air conditioner, he opened a window, and climbed out.
A look of surprise crossed my face, and a look of horror crossed Aika’s as we realised what he was doing. He had slid open our window, clumsily hauled both legs overand gripping the flimsy handrail, inched across to the exterior part of the air conditioner.
I hadn’t realised, but there is an exterior part to the big, two meter tall machine in my living room that pumps out cold air. It was a pipe on the EXTERIOR that had broken, and needed to be replaced.
And we live on the 22nd floor, and the exterior air conditioner isn’t made for easy access or anything. They didn’t put it in a convenient, easy to reach place in case someone had to, at some point in time, fix or replace the thing. Anyone that has to reach it must be spiderman or something.
Before asking if he needed a rope or anything, my landlord had made his way to the exterior part of the air conditioner, which sits on a specially made ledge next to one of the exterior walls. He was sitting on it, and reaching around trying to feel for the leaking tube. The new tube was in his mouth as he felt around for it. He was 22 floors above ground level, the wind whipping his hair and business jacket.
My landlord isn’t a spry young guy either. He’d obviously shown up to fix my air conditioner after work. He was dressed in a business suit, and is in his mid forties. He’d spent all day at the office, but before retiring for the day, he had found himself sitting on an air conditioner, 22 stories up, awkwardly fumbling around for a leaking plastic pipe.
He fixed it. No problem. He replaced the pipe, slowly made his way along the ledge again, and climbed back in the window. “I’m really sorry about the mess,” he said, indicating a pair of dirty footprints. “Can I open my eyes now?” said Aika. As he had climbed out the window, she had closed her eyes.
I didn’t know what to say! “Thank you, thank you thank you!” I felt myself thanking him so much for his help, for risking his life for the broken tube. It was quite surreal actually, for both sides. I could see that he felt quite uncomfortable about all the fuss we were making. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in cyberspace, there’s a blog entry by my landlord, something along the lines of “I went to my tenant’s apartment to fix a pipe, and he acted like I had saved the world or something!”.
I’ve included a picture of the exterior of my air conditioner. This is what my landlord was sitting on, in his suit and tie, hair being blown by the wind, groping around blindly for a broken pipe.
